“Dr Lotta’s sense of humour made her collect stories of misunderstandings about her uniform:

The RCAF veteran who congratulated her on still being in the air force;

the waitress in Winnipeg who wanted her to baby-sit when she had explained that her agency looked after children;

the guest in a Korean hotel who exclaimed “Telegrams!” on seeing her in the elevator; and

the Japanese tourist who tried to buy a bus ticket from her to Niagara Falls.

“She also recounted episodes when her uniform helped save the situation. Once she was disturbed in the middle of the night on a 480-kilometer train journey in Korea, when two strange men pulled aside the curtain of her sleeping bunk and shook her awake. ‘Under such circumstances, a uniform like mine is the only thing to travel in’ she said later.”